pigrabbitbear writes: "The company that long ago vowed to not be evil is now confronting it head on. Late yesterday Google added to its already deep portfolio of governmental-like projects a new initiative geared towards combatting violent illicit networks like drug cartels, organ harvesters, arms dealers and human traffickers. It’s not like Google is creating its own international police force or something, however Robocop that would be. Instead, the search giant is partnering with the Council on Foreign Relations and the Tribeca Film Festival to convene a summit called “Illicit Networks: Forces in Opposition” in Los Angeles this week to talk over the issues. The objective, Google says, is “to discover ways that technology can be used to expose and disrupt these networks as a whole — and to put some of these ideas into practice.”"

pigrabbitbear writes: "There goes Google, doing no evil again. Over the weekend, word burbled up that the tech giant was launching ‘Legalize Love,’ a campaign to fight for marriage equality around the world. That’s not quite the case; the news turned out to be the result of some over-optimistic blogging from 429.com. But Google is indeed beginning an international effort to combat workplace discrimination against gays in each of the countries it has offices in, starting with Singapore and Poland."